Obesity is caused by overeating, lack of exercise, abnormal feeding pattern, genetic predisposition, thermogenesis impairment, and such. Excess energy resulting from imbalance of intake and expenditure of energy is stored in adipocytes, and these adipocytes gather to form adipose tissue. That is, obesity is a condition of hyperplasia of adipose tissues.
In addition, obesity is thought to be a major risk factor for heart diseases (angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, cardiac hypertrophy, heart failure, etc.), vascular disorders (hypertension, arteriosclerosis, cerebral thrombosis, cerebral infarction, etc.) diabetes, gout, hyperlipemia, fatty liver, gallstone, pancreatitis, osteoarthritis, hernia, and such.
Adipocytes are produced from mesenchymal cells and are formed by differentiation induction from adipocyte precursors. Therefore, adipocyte formation can be suppressed by inhibiting differentiation induction of adipocyte precursors to form adipocytes. When the formation of adipocyte is suppressed, adipose tissue will not be formed. Thus, compounds that inhibit differentiation of adipocytes are considered to have preventive or therapeutic effects against obesity related diseases.